Postoperative cardiac risks in elderly or diseased patients warrant vigilance; Level 5 data leaves open need for prospective risk-stratification trials.
RECENT developments in anesthesia, wider use of antibiotics, improved postoperative care and the increasing percentage of older people in the general population1 2 3 account for the performance of a wide range of operative procedures on older age groups, and on patients with known heart disease who are considered to be poor surgical risks. It is recognized that, in these groups particularly, cardiac complications before, during and after surgery present major hazards; of these, postoperative myocardial infarction is of considerable importance. In spite of the significance of this complication there have been relatively few detailed reports on this subject in recent years. . . .
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Wasserman et al. (1955) studied this question.
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